Bed Stiffeners - Total Chaos design vs. others

What is the best bang for the buck / affordable Stiffener? Most I run for weight is added armor, and a 4Wheeler in the bed sometimes... not sure if even necessary.

 

If you are ust looking for something minimal, it seems like the stifferners shown in reply #6 on page 1 is your best bet. No extra tiedown points but adds strength to the corners.

Apparently a user named "tttacodan" makes them. Reach out via DM.

I went with Cali-raised as it was one of the lower cost ones, looks beefy and had a lot of extra tie down points.

 

The mini-stiffeners do have tie down points. The top hole will fit a smaller tie down as well as the oval holes on the back… they also retain the factory D-rings that come in the be standard. I like them because I only had to drill one hole per side, not 3. Just my two cents…

 

How much are his stiffeners?

 

So far best i seen is $75 shipped for a set.

 

Sounds good, curious about cost too, do you sacrifice any support/strength though with the minis vs the larger ones ?

 

Is that the real deal? I bought a set of minnies, but was holding out for a run of middies that never came to reality.

Was he violating vendor status policy, or was it truly a matter of competing with some favored vendors?

 

I asked the mods as there were other companies selling stiffeners, they promptly deleted those threads also. So I didn’t point out any others that were also selling. Wasn’t trying to get everyone deleted.

 

Kinda like the engineer that couldn’t get his laptop online at the VA.... kept going around to all the various drops and computers and trying their wall ports for his laptop. Auto-Security kept seeing an unqualified MAC address and promptly disabled each port behind him. He says he accidentally shut down half the department because he didn’t know the security protocols.

 

Exactly

 

For what it's worth, my mini stiffeners are well made, the service, product, shipping and install was second to none. I won't say what I paid as prices and availability may have changed.

 

Ditto

 

For what it's worth...

Holding a patent really only obligates the holder to DEFEND his right to earn income from the patentable item.

It does not in any way keep anyone else from having or producing the object/technology.

Follow the money!

 

As an engineer, let me voice my contrary opinion. The Total Chaos stiffeners are definitely stronger than most of the other stiffeners on the market. If you look at the TC ones you will note that both "legs" of the metal are continuous where the vertical and horizontal portions of the stiffener meet (ie the corner of the stiffener). Most of the others have a cutout at this corner, which cuts their strength by probably more than half.
As for the mini stiffeners mentioned above, I believe they are almost worthless. While they stiffen a little portion of the bed, the real movement is higher up than two or three inches. These mini ones probably will just cause the cracks to move to the top of them since they really just over-strengthen a small location at the corner.

 

I don't know enough about the stress dynamics of the bed and it all the stress is at the corner or across the entireside of the bed. If it is across the entire bed side, I agree the smaller ones may offer less protection.

What you point out on the TC on the corner is a good point. I did consider that when I went with the Cali Raised. The design on the Cali raised, I believe they are not getting their main strength from the sections that attach to the sides and bed. Those are mainly attachment points. Instead they are getting it from th+e other piece with the extra mounting points. That section is pretty darn beefy. I don't see that breaking. Not sure if it could get so much stress that the welds break.

With that said, I mainly looked at TC and Cali raised when I bought mine. I wanted the TC but they were out of stock so I went with Cali Raised. They are beefy.

 

Agreed. You are correct. The standing flange is where the loads go in the corner. I went with the CaliRaised ones partly for that reason. The attaching flanges are important, but not critical to the joint in the corner, considering the flaw of the Stock design and that the remainder of the metal part of the bed (the stanchion) is still effective.

In my view, most all of the stiffeners change the loading from bending through the flawed, stock corner to more of a direct tension / compression in each member. Where the stiffener reacts a more direct load and the stanchion reacts the other component.

Of course, if you get engineers in a room, all you get is more opinions. Very rarely are they all wrong. Just different approaches to the same problem.

It would be fun to test the various stiffener designs. I do feel that the TC one would fail earlier / be weaker. That said, given the type of stock flaw and the amount of metal there, a lot of the common stiffener designs appear to be good enough.

As I noted in another stiffener thread that had some great discussion about the various ones, I not really interested in trying to persuade anyone. The effectiveness of reasonable persuasion is just gone these days and folks just have hang ups on their formed opinions.

 

Again I must be contrary and disagree.

The flat piece next to the bed and the outer portion of the vertical are where the stresses are (ie the "flanges" if they were a beam). The Total Chaos design is MUCH stronger. The corner, where the vertical leg and the horizontal is where the stresses are and almost all the other stiffeners have been purposely (I suppose for manufacturing reasons) weakened at precisely the location where the most strength is needed. Although, I said above that the others have reduced their strength by half, I am being conservative. If calcs. were actually run, they probably have been weakened by over 2/3 to 3/4 of their strength (ie they are only 1/3 to 1/4 as strong as the TC ones).
Anyways to be conservative, just assume the TC stiffeners are over twice as strong as the others that have notched out the corner steel (which is almost all of them).

Whether that extra strength is actually needed is another thing. Although, I did get the TC stiffeners because they are stronger, I am not totally sold on whether any stiffener is needed. However, since I do a lot of off-roading on bumpy trails and I have a topper, I am being a little conservative (as we engineers tend to be).

 

It's all good. I disagree but am also being too lazy to diagram it out.

Like I said, we all have different opinions. As long as the MS > 0.0, I'm happy.

 

I have a set of all-pro which are identical to the TCs and cheaper!

 

Assuming they are the same metal thickness, from an engineers point of view, I would say they are even better and stronger since they are symmetrical with flanges on either side of the flat piece that is bolted to the truck. They won't fail in torsion (twisting) as the Total Chaos ones will. And they are cheaper! Great find!